Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary
Beverly Atlee Clearyis an American writer of children's and young adult fiction. One of America's most successful living authors, 91 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide since her first book was published in 1950. Some of her best known characters are Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy, Ramona and Beezus Quimby, and Ralph S. Mouse...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth12 April 1916
CityMcminnville, OR
CountryUnited States of America
I don't necessarily start with the beginning of the book. I just start with the part of the story that's most vivid in my imagination and work forward and backward from there.
If we finished our work, the teacher would say, 'Now don't read ahead.' But sometimes I hid the book I was reading behind my geography book and did read ahead. You can hide a lot behind a geography book.
Children want to do what grownups do.
The key to writing successful YA is to keep the adults out of the story as much as possible.
In seventh grade...I found a place on the [library]shelf where my book would be if I ever wrote a book, which I doubted.
I grew up before there were strict leash laws.
Didn't the people who made those license plates care about little girls named Ramona?
As a child, I disliked books in which children learned to be 'better' children.
What interests me is what children go through while growing up.
I write in longhand on yellow legal pads.
When I was in the first grade I was afraid of the teacher and had a miserable time in the reading circle, a difficulty that was overcome by the loving patience of my second grade teacher. Even though I could read, I refused to do so.
I just wrote about childhood as I had known it.
I don't think children's inner feelings have changed. They still want a mother and father in the very same house; they want places to play.
Otis was inspired by a boy who sat across the aisle from me in sixth grade. He was a lively person. My best friend appears in assorted books in various disguises.